Whether measured by traditional stats like his 3-8 record and 5.23 ERA, or by ratios like his 3.48 walks and 1.31 home runs allowed per nine innings, or by advanced metrics like his 4.23 xFIP, Ian Kennedy is having a terrible season and about the only way that the 28-year-old righthander’s trade value could possibly be lower would be if his name had popped up on a Biogenesis list.

So, on Wednesday, the Arizona Diamondbacks traded Kennedy. Arizona did not just trade him, in fact, the Diamondbacks sent Kennedy to a division rival in the San Diego Padres, getting back lefthanded reliever Joe Thatcher, Class A reliever Matt Stites and a sandwich pick between the second and third rounds of next year’s draft.

While Kennedy is eligible for arbitration after his one-year, $4.27 million contract expires after this season, the Padres will have him under team control for two more years. While Thatcher has been excellent in his role, holding lefthanded batters to a .190 average since 2009, and Stites has 51 strikeouts and eight walks in 52 innings in Double-A this year, they are a small price to pay for a pitcher who, if nothing else, can pitch big innings. Since Jake Peavy left San Diego, the only Padres to pitch at least 200 innings in a season have been Clayton Richard (twice) and Jon Garland.

Kennedy has done it each of the past two seasons, and has pitched 124 innings this year. Also worth considering is that in six career starts in San Diego – granted, against some pretty shoddy Padres lineups – Kennedy has posted a 2.27 ERA and 0.897 WHIP, with 48 strikeouts in 35.2 innings, allowing only three home runs.

“We’re excited to add a starting pitcher of Ian’s pedigree,” Padres GM Josh Byrnes said in a statement. “He is under club control through 2015, and we feel he will help us take another step forward as a team.”

For the Diamondbacks, trading Kennedy made sense when there was speculation that jettisoning him would free space for Peavy, but the Chicago White Sox traded the former Padres ace to the Boston Red Sox late Tuesday night. Adding Thatcher should be a boost to Arizona’s bullpen, where Tony Sipp has been less than spectacular as a lefty specialist, allowing a .769 OPS to lefthanded hitters, but that kind of help comes at quite a cost.

The Diamondbacks entered play on Wednesday 3.5 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West.